Golf club



Jan, 27. 1925.

L. G. READ GOLF CLUB Filed Aug. 16, 1923 Za'zzas 6T ZZeaa/ Patented Jan. 27, 1925.

UNITED'STATE'S PATENT OFFICE,

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Application filed August 16, 1923. Serial No. 657,650.

To all whom it may concern: Be it known that LINUs G. READ, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, has invented certain new and useful Improvements in Golf Clubs, of which the following is a specification.

The present, invention relates to an improved golf club, and particularly that type of club known as woods, as distinguished from iron clubs. Woods are of three forms, the driver, the brassie, and the spoon, the variation being in the incline of the striking face; and of these three, the driver is considered the most important, as the driver shot is supposed to be the longest and most essential to distance. While the invention will therefore be described more particularly with reference to drivers, it is intended to comprehend the other wood clubs.

As those familiar with golf will realize, the tee shot taken with a driver, oughtto be made with greater accurac and more confidence than any other shotin the game, because, on the tee, the player has his own choice of position and stance, and is free to tee the ball to suit himself, 'But the fact is, that the great majority of golfers not only find this their weakest shot, but have less confidence in making it, than in making iron shots, where the lie is always more difficult.

This tremendous difference in proficiency with the irons and woods, has been attributed to many causes, psychology being the common alibi, but I have found that the real reason lies in the design of the clubs, the wooden clubs, as heretofore made, embodying certain elements of design and construction which are opposed in principle to the work which the club is intended to perform. Principal of these elements, is the placing of the weight in the club head. The same laws which govern the action of other moving bodies, govern the action of a driver head, when it moves at a velocity of about 200 feet per second, and if the weight is improperly placed a consequent turning or twisting of the club must necessarily result.

Golfers have accepted the weight-behindthe-ball rule, without realizing the very great error that if the weight is put behind the center line of the shaft, it is in the worst possible place, throwing the head, as it does, entirely out of balance. The weight in the usual driver is between one and two inches behind the center line of the shaft. It is behind the ball, but since it is also behind the center line of the shaft, its accumulated momentum forces the club head to turn sl1ghtly,causing the faceto tilt backwards and the heel to go foreward, sending the ball away with not only a slice, but with a strong slicing spm and right hand roll.

, The heaviest part of all moving bodies tries, with all the force of its accumulated momentum, to get in front, just as the head of an arrow always flies in front. If a stone is tied toa string and swung around the head, the heaviest portion will instantly take the position furthest from you, and if it is tied so that the heaviest portion cannot take the outside position, then the heavy part will turn over to the front. Similarly, if a screw-eye is sunk into the center of the top of a driver shaft, tieing a string into the screw-eye, then swinging the driver around your head, the back of the driver head will instantly turn round to the front, and as it cannot stay in front, it keeps turning the club, twisting the string, and this is precisely what it tries to do when it is swung at a golf ball. The natural result is a sliced drive, and the onlypossibility of hitting a straight ball is by holding the club tilted foreward sufficiently to neutralize the turning effect of the m0- mentum. r

A comparison of the balance of an iron club and the usual wood club by laying them across a narrow table and letting the heads hang over'the edge, will show that the face of the iron head will assume a vertical position, while the face of the wood head will tilt upward at an angle of about thirty degrees. If a driver head cannot hang in a correct position, even at rest, it cannot be supposed that it will travel in a right position,when it is moving at high velocity and with tremendous accumulation of momentum.

To have the weight in the right place is just as essentialin golf clubs as in hammers, axes, mallets and bats. Were the weight in a hammer as wrongly placed as in the driver, it would be practicallywimpossible to drive a nail straight, and were-an axe built on the same design, it would take the woodsman all day to hack down a single tree. Were a base-ball bat made with the weight some'two inches off the center line of the bat, there would be no such thing as a home-run. I

An object of my to provide a driver with the weight properly placed on the center line of the shaft, and so balanced that the center of gravity is as nearly as possible in the geometrical center of the head, so 'that the force applied to the shaft, or handle, and the accumulated momentum in consequence there- ,of, will flow uniformly through the entire area .of the striking face, and will not tend to twistor distort the shaft at the'moment of im act.

- A. rther object is to provide improved means for inserting and retaining the Weight, so that it cannot become loose and fly out of its position, and to this end, I propose to insert the Weight from the bottom or sole of the head, and retain it by means ofa removable sole plate. This construction furthermore facilitates altering of the weight to suit the desires of any player, without in'any way'distiguring the head.

A still further object is to provide a club,

which will insure that the ball when struck will revolve upon a horizontal axis, that is to say, it will roll in a straight line foreward; and to this end, I- have extended the soleeplate of the striking face about one thirty-second ofan inch, so that as the ball leaves the face of-the club, and at which instant the face is rising and following the ball, the ball will be given a foreward rolling -impetus,-causing'it to revolve upon a horizontal axis, and causing it, therefore,

wvhen it strikes the ground to roll ahead,

thus, gaining in distance and also very greatly gaining in accuracy.

I have also discovered that the area of the face of the present used wood club is deficient, and does not give the player equal opportunity of making a good hit with the wood, as-with his iron clubs, and it is another object of my invention, therefore, to provide a wood club of increased striking face area, approximately equal to that of the iron clubs; or in other words, approximately equal tothe full area of the longitudinal section of the head.

I further propose to provide a striking I face of improved shape. The shape of the face, as generally used, approximates a keystone, bemg wide'at the top and narrow at the bottom. If a ball is properly hit the point of contact should be nearer the sole than the top ofthe face, and this being so, the present shape does not give the player the benefit of the wider area where it is most needed. Another object of my invention therefore, is to provide a striking face'that is (if practically the same, or of greater wi h, at the bottom as at the top, and that is of practicallyv the same height'at the heel invention therefore, is

as at the toe; thus insuring that even thou h the body of theplayer may sway sli ht y foreward or backward, causing the clubfiiead to engage the ball at'a point slightly higher or lower, he will nevertheless, have a better 7 chance of makin a good hit, the sha and area of the stri ing face being suci that the full available area may be utilized.

Still another object is to provide, as one embodiment or modification of the inven- 7 tion, an improved bulger face club. The usual bulger or convex faced head, has its tonvexity extending from the heel to the toe of the striking area, or in other words,

the center of the face bulges out from a vertical axis. "The effect of this bulge is supposed to add to the length of flight of the ball, but at the same time it causes the ball to leave the face of the driver with a rotation on a vertical axis, spinning like a top, so to speak, and when it strikes the ground it, therefore, rolls off to one side or the other. depending upon whether the point of contact was to the right or to the left of the high point. of the bulge. feature is admittedly bad, I propose to place the convexity as from the to to the bottom of the face. that is from a orizontal axis, so as to strike the ball in the same manner as a base-ball bat strikes a baseball, This will send the ball away rotating on a horizontal axis, rolling foreward instead of off to one side, thereby gaining both in distance and direction.

With the above and other objects in view,

embodiments of my invention are shown in the accompanying drawings, and these embodiments will be hereinafter more fully described with reference thereto, and the invention will be finally pointed out in the claims;

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a wood driver, according to my invention;

' Fig. 2 is an end or 'toe view of the same;

ulger face, ac-

its neck 12 being secured to the shaft end by a cord winding 13, in the usual manner.

The weight is applied to the head by drilling a hole .1-i from the sole directly along the center line of the shaft, and uring hot lead 15 into it, the lead, when m As this .0

end view of cooled, being retained by means of a soleplate 16 secured by screws 17. The hole may furthermore be bulged, as at 18, to insure against shifting of the weight, and to give added weight at the center and directly behind thestriking point of the face. With this construction the weight is placed substantially in the eometrical center of the head, is directly ehind the striking face, and is not behind the shaft, but along its center line. The club is perfectly balanced, and by the test of laying the shaft on a narrow table, with the head hanging free, the striking face will assume a vertical position. In striking a ball the tremendous velocity and accumulated momemtum will not tend to twist or distort the head, and the striking face will impact with the ball squarely and with full effect.

The weight may be conveniently altered, without marl-ing the exterior finish of the head, by removing the sole-plate and increasing or decreasing the total weight by drilling out some of the lead, or adding more, as desired.

The striking face 19 is of an area substantially e ual to the longitudinal section of the hea and appro-xlmates the area of the usual iron club such that it is of substantially equal height at the heel as at the toe, so that the player will have the benefit of the full area in striking the ball.

As shown more clearly in Fig 2, the sole-plate 16 is projected slightly, as at 20, about one thirty-second of an inch, and is adapted as the head leaves the ball to impart a rotating impetus tothe ball, so that it rolls about a horizontal axis. This not only tends to straighten and lengthen the flight of the ball, but to cause it to roll straight ahead upon striking the ground, thus gaining in distance and direction.

In Fig. 6 I have illustrated a modification in which a bulger striking face 21 is provided, the bulge being about a horiaxis coincident with head. Its shape iszontal center line, as distinguished from about a vertical line, as heretofore. With this form the ball will be given a horizontal spin similar to that imparted to a base ball when struck by a bat, with the result that both the flight and roll of the ball will be in a straight line.

I have illustrated and described preferred and satisfactory embodiments of my invention, but it will be obvious that changes may be made therein, within the spirit and scope thereof, as defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a golf club, a shaft, a head of wood or the like secured to the end of said shaft and having a striking face, and solid weight means embedded in said head disposed rearwardly of said striking face, extending inwardly from the sole with its the central plane of said shaft, and is substantially an approximate line of the axis of said shaft, to form a balanced head.

2. In a golf club, a shaft, a head of wood or the like secured to the end of said shaft and having a striking face and a circular cross-section hole rearwardly of said striking face extending inwardly from the sole with its axis coincident with the central plane of said shaft, and having a bulged portion intermediate its ends, and solid weight means inserted in and filling said hole, extending into said bulged portion to lock the weight means against movement, and substantially equally distributed in all directions at right angles to the axis of said hole, to form a balanced head.

Signed at Bridgeport in the county of Fair-field and State of Connecticut this 1st day of Aug. A. D., 1923.

LINUS G. READ.

Witnesses:

LILLIAN M. ALLING, O. M. NEWMAN. 

